Railway car side door



March 21, 1944. G G, G|LPIN RAILWAY GAR SIDE noon 2 Sheets-She et 1 Filed Dec. 24, 1941 19 iarm March 21, 1944. G. G GILPIN RAILWAY CAR SIDE DOOR Filed Dec. 24. 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 [Wm/W 64/27/6617;

/ '1 vair Patented Mar. 21, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ration of Delaware This invention relates to railway cars and particularly to the side doors for such cars. Door openings are commonly provided at or adjacent the central portions of the side walls of the car and doors for closing such openings move horizontally longitudinally of the car in planes substantially parallel with the planes of the side walls.

The doors are commonly supported on longitudinally extending tracks and various means are employed for supporting the doors upon the tracks as well as for locking the doors in desired positions. Many such means are well known to persons familiar with the railway art and one of the more common is that disclosed in Gilpin Patent No. 1,902,772, March 21, 1933. As disclosed in such patent, rollers are revolubly mounted upon the door and depressions are provided in the tread of the track, which depressions are arranged to receive the rollers when the door is in the full opened and full closed positions. The rollers are thus out of operative engagement with the track and the weight of the door when in such positions is taken by the engagement of non-rotative members carried by the door or the door itself and car respectively, thereby frictionallyretarding movement of the door along the track.

In order to move the rollers out of the depressions and start the door rolling along the track, a, lever is commonly mounted upon thedoor for sliding and rotating movement. The lower end of the lever engages a bracket carried by the car and the high mechanical advantage inherent in the type of leverused pries the rollers out of the depressions and starts the door rolling.

An object of the invention is to provide relatively rigid non-rotative parts carried by the car and door, respectively, and arranged to engage when the door is in full opened or full closed position to frictionally restrain movement thereof and to provide relatively resilient sealing elements carried respectively by the car and door and arranged to engage as the door is given a downward movement when the rollers enter the depressions. Such resilient sealing elements are preferably arranged to support but a minor part of the weight of the door, the resilience preferably being provided by using elements having a substantial unsupported length which in some cases may be tortuously formed to save space.

sealing elements as to tend to force the door outwardly upon engagement of the sealing elements. Other sealing members are provided along the mesne assignments, Equipment Manufact Another object is to so arrange such resilient vertical edges of the door which may be arranged RAILWAY CAR SIDE DOOR Garth G. Gilpin, Riverside, 111., assignor, by to Standard Railway uringCompany, a. corpo- Applica'tion December 24, 1941, Serial No. 424,313 8 Claims. (CI. 20-22) so that the seal is made more effective by the outward movement of the door.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will be apparent from the following detailed description by referring to the accompanying drawmgs.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a partial side elevation of a railway car having a side door embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a plan section through the door as indicated by line 2-2 of Figure l.

Fig. 3 is a vertical section on line 3--3 of Figure 1 showing the door in full closed position with the rollers in the depressions of the track.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 showing the rollers in operative engagement with the undepressed parts of the track and with the sealing elements not engaged.

- Figs. 5, 6 and 7 are views showing modified constructions. 1

The drawings disclose a common type of railway car embodying the usual side plate 2 and side sill 3 which are connected by vertical posts including the front and rear (6) door posts shown most clearly in Figure 2, the doorway ofthe car being confined between the door posts 5, 6. The lower edge of the door opening is defined by the combination threshold plate Sand floor support and the upper edge of the doorway is defined by the header 9. The side sheathing H is secured to the door posts 5, 6 and extends therefrom toward the ends of the car.

The door 12 is comprised of front (14), rear (15), top (11) and bottom (18) frame strips to which is secured a, relatively thin sheathing 20 preferably provided with stiffeners 2|. Housings 23 having rollers 24- revolubly mounted therein are rigidly attached to the door 12; the track structure 26 is carried by the car and is comprised of a tread angle 21 supported by a supporting angle 29 attached to the side sill 3. The upstanding leg 30 of the tread angle 21 is flanged inwardly (32) at its upper edge and the roller housings 23 are provided with lips 33 underlying the flanged part 32 of the tread angle 21 for thepurpose of retaining the door upon. the track. The tread angle 21 is provided with depressions 35 spaced so that When the door is in the full opened or full closed position, the rollers 24 are within the depressions 35 and out of operative engagement with the tread 21. The housings 23 are provided with pads 31 which rest. upon the flanged part 32 of the tread angle 21 and support the door when the rollers 24 are in 1" the depression. 35.

The pads 31 resting upon the tread angle flange 32 cause a frictional resistance to the moving of the door I 2 along the track. A lever 40 which utilizes a high mechanical advantage is car for the purpose of overcoming the frictional resistance. Such a lever is more fully disclosed and described in Schlesinger Patent 1,963,152, June 19, 1934.

The bottom (I 8) and top (I1) frame strips of the door l2 are provided with inwardly and upwardly extending flanges 44, 45 which form sealures 3, 5 and 7, have a relatively resilience.

wardly and outwardly inclined flange 50. The bottom fixed sealing element 5| is attached to the side sill 3 and is comprised of a relatively long unsupported part 53 tortuously formed to fit in the small space available and terminating in a downwardly and outwardly inclined flange 54.

tread 21. fiected the amount necessary to permit the pads 31 to rest upon the tread 21. The resilience or flexibility of the sealing means assures an effective seal because if, due to ship, one end of either the fixed or movable iii to seal the rear edge of the door opening. As the rollers 24 drop into the depressions 35, the sealing elements force the efieotively sealing the door.

In the modification shown in Figure 5, the

66 at the upper and 75' fixed sealing elements 65,

lower parts of the door embody unsupported upstanding legs 68, 69 instead of the depending legs disclosed in Figure 3. Such upstanding legs provide resilient sealing means as hereinabove pointed out.

83 of the fixed sealing element 80.

The features of providing means to cause the door to move outwardly when lowered which the margins of is disclosed and claimed in an application of Karl F. Nystrom, Serial No. 389,487, filed April 21, 1941.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it is to understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and cations thereof, within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. In a railway car having a Wall with a doorway therein, a relatively stationary member adjacent the doorway, a track carried by the car,

cooper elements around the perimeter of the door and doorwa on the wall and door respectively, certain of said elements being resilient, said vertical elements and the resilience of said certain elements maintains said seal.

3. In a railway car having a wall with a doorway therein, a stationary member adjacent the doorway, and a vertically shiftable and laterally moveable door moveable in a plane parallel with the wall for closing the doorway; cooperating horizontal and vertical sealing elements around the perimeter of the door and doorway on the wall and door respectively, certain of said elements being resilient, said vertical elements limiting outward movement of said door, and means to impart an outward movement to said door as it shifts downwardly until said vertical elements are cooperatively engaged to form a seal and limit the aforesaid outward movement, and the resilience of said certain elements maintains said seal and allows said door to shift further downwardly until said door rests upon said stationary member.

4. In a railway car having a wall with a doorway therein, and a vertically shiftable and laterally moveable door having rollers revolubly mounted thereon moveable on a track parallel with the wall for closing the doorway, said track having depressions arranged to receive said rollers in the closed position of said door; cooperating horizontal and vertical sealing elements around the perimeter of the door and doorway on the wall and door respectively, certain of said elements being resilient, said vertical elements limiting outward movement of said door, and means to impart an outward movement to said door as it shifts downwardly when said rollers move into said depressions until said vertical elements are cooperatively engaged to form a seal and limit the aforesaid outward movement, and the resilience of said certain elements maintains said seal and allows said door to shift further downwardly until said door rests upon said track.

5. In a railway car having a wall with a doorway therein, a vertically shiftable and laterally moveable door moveable in a plane substantially parallel with the wall to a position opposite said doorway, the combination of sealing elements between said wall and door, certain of said elements being resilient, means to move the door from said position into engagement with an outwardly and downwardly inclined surface so that as said door shifts downwardly said door moves outwardly to a fully closed position, whereby a seal is formed between said sealing members and between said door and said inclined surface, certain of said sealing members limiting said outward movement of said door, and the resilience of said certain elements maintains said seal.

6. In a railway car having a wall with a doorway therein, a vertically shiftable and laterally moveable door moveable in a plane substantially parallel with the wall to a position opposite said doorway, the combination of sealing elements between said wall and door, means to move the door from said position into engagement with a resilient member having an outwardly and downwardly inclined surface so that as the resilience of said member allows said door to shift downwardly the inclined surface moves said door outwardly to a fully closed position whereby a seal is formed between said sealing members and between said door and said inclined surface, certain of said sealing members limiting said outward movement of said door.

7. In a railway car having a doorway, a track mounted upon the car provided with depressions -in the tread thereof, a door for closing said doorway having rollers mounted thereon for rollably supporting the door upon the track, horizontal sealing means mounted upon the car, and horizontal sealing means carried by the door engageable with said sealing means upon the car upon a downward movement of the door when the door is in closed position, one of said sealing means comprising a laterally extending resilient portion terminating in an outwardly and downwardly inclined portion, cooperative vertical sealing elements carried by the car and door respectively, said vertical elements limiting the hereinafter mentioned outward movement of said door, whereby as the door is lowered by the door rollers moving into said depressions one of said horizontal sealing means engages the inclined portion of the other of said horizontal sealing means and the resilience of the resilient means moves the door outwardly until the vertical sealing elements are engaged to form a seal and limit said outward movement, and the resilience of the resilient sealing means allows the door to move further downwardly until the door engages the track thus relieving the sealing means of part of the weight of the door.

8. In a railway car having a doorway, a track mounted upon the car, a laterally moveable door for closing said doorway moveable upon said track, horizontal sealing means mounted on the car below thedoorway, horizontal sealing means carried by the door engageable with the sealing means upon the car, certain of said sealing means being resilient and having an outwardly and downwardly inclined portion, vertical sealing means at the edges of the door engageable with vertical sealing means at the sides of the doorway to form a seal and limit outward movement of the door, means to lower said door when the door is opposite said doorway to fully closed position, whereby as the door is lowered one of said horizontal sealing means engages the inclined portion of the other sealing means, forms a seal, and the resilience of the resilient sealin means moves the door outwardly until said door engages the vertical sealing means, and said resilience also allows the door to move further downwardly until the door engages the track, thus relieving the sealing means of part of the weight of the door.

GARTH G. GILPIN. 

